Portrait photography

[Rampage]

Just curious, what is a good amount of Flashes to have for a portrait studio of some sort? As always thanks in advance,

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[ClickAddict]

3 is a common number to work with. (Main flash, fill and hair) You can always get away with less (Some prefer using a reflector for fill. Some like an extra one for background. Many photographs are done nicely with just one. Depends on style, but if you're looking for versatility, I'd start with about 3. There are some sites that offer kits which could be good deals if planning on buying more than 1

 

[Designer]

With skill and practice, some photographers make some excellent portraits with only one flash (and some reflectors, etc.).

If you can afford it, get three: Key light, fill light, and background light. With four, you'll use one for a hair light.

Also, if you plan on mainly in the studio, get regular monolight strobes of a good brand. Don't forget to budget for stands, modifiers, backdrop, tripod or camera stand, etc.

 

[tirediron]

As many as you can afford! Lighting gear is like lenses; you can never have enough. That said, Designer's spot on: You can make amazing images with a single light with a little practice (and it's really not that hard). If you want to get into more complex or dramatic lighting, three is a decent number to start, but if you want the most flexibility, five is a comfortable number.

 

[Rampage]

Time to get more Flashpoint zoom lion Flashes. I like the lithium ion batteries. Haven't seen any others with that

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[ronlane]

Time to get more Flashpoint zoom lion Flashes. I like the lithium ion batteries. Haven't seen any others with that

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For studio work, you might consider monolights. Since you already have the Flashpoint stuff here are the 3 light kits.

 

[Rampage]

Time to get more Flashpoint zoom lion Flashes. I like the lithium ion batteries. Haven't seen any others with that

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For studio work, you might consider monolights. Since you already have the Flashpoint stuff here are the 3 light kits.

I will definitely take a look at that. Good looking out, I really appreciate it

 

[KmH]

Most of my in studio portraiture was done with at least 5 monolights - Key, fill, kicker, hair, background.
Plus light modifiers, reflectors, black flats (subtract light), and scrims (diffuser).

My favorite key and fill modifier was a brolly, sized according to how many people were in the portrait.
I usually put a snoot on my hair light, and my kickers usually had a tall thin softbox on them, sometimes I used a grid.

 

[Derrel]

Rather than a snoot for hair light, I like a parabolic reflector, fitted with a honeycomb grid attachment, and barn doors, and very often, one or two thicknesses of mylar diffusing material attached in front of the honeycomb grid: this is exactly why the second, three-light kit Adorama sells has a barn door kit that accepts a slide-in grid, and also slide-in color gel filters and a slide-in milky-colored diffuser.

Here is the adjustable reflector-sized barndoor,grid,and filter kit that comes with the $449 set, or which is sold for the bargain price of $39.95: Flashpoint FP-LF-BD This uses a clever system that makes it adaptable to many,many brands of studio flash parabolic reflectors, of different sizes. It works very well on my Speedotron 7-inch reflectors, and I have also used it on a smaller JTL monolight's slightly bigger reflector (8.5-inch I believe).

With barn doors, you can "squeeze down" the beam spread from the standard reflector, and make it cover different-sized areas; using a parabolic reflector of the standard type if a fantastic way to light backgrounds, wither with our without the honeycomb grid; the red,blue, and yellow gels I have not found to be that interesting, but the holders are light-gauge metal, and you can un-glue the filters, and then glue on whatever other material you like. I consider a barndoor+grid+mylar diffuser set-up to be absolutely essential for portraiture.

 

[s.smith]

As much as I love your hummer shots, I love this one more! Excellent capture of a bird that can be hard to find (is it wild?). The branch above him and the black BG frame him perfectly. I'm curious, however, why you used multiple flashes for the stationary bird and how you set them up. The eyes came out great, so I assume your flashes were off to the side.